District 13 (Hammonds Plains - St. Margarets)

Barry Dalrymple

Dalrymple is angry: just ask him. By his way of thinking, everything HRM does is purposely designed to screw over the people of Fall River---every recreation plan, every extension of a water line, every road paving contract is, in Dalrymple’s mind, unjustly penalizing the residents of his district, and proves that those pointy head bureaucrats in City Hall have it out for rural residents.

Boo-effing-hoo. To be sure, Fall River still suffers from a heavy reliance on special tax districts by the former County of Halifax, but an objective look shows that amalgamation was the best thing that ever happened for rural HRM. Fire service is 1,000 times better, cops are well-funded, rational planning and governance has replaced the petty and vindictive small-town politics of the old county.

That’s not to say the elected reps for rural areas shouldn’t fight for every cent they can get, and even though Dalrymple’s disagreeable put-upon disposition is annoying, he makes his point, and that’s the only thing keeping him from an F grade. But rather than embracing destructive policies like “tax reform,” which would’ve hurt the poorest of the residents in his district, if he’s to have any success at all, Dalrymple needs to learn to cooperate with the HRM machine he hates.